T-Mobile Sells 1 Million Google Android Phones

Google's Android operating system is finding traction with T-Mobile customers, who have snapped up a million Android-powered smartphones from the carrier since the device's debut in October 2008.

Deutsche Telekom announced its stateside subsidiary, T-Mobile USA,
has sold one million G1 Android smartphones since its debut six months
ago. The phone is powered by Google's open-source operating system,
Android. The announcement was made during the parent company's earnings
announcement earlier this week and was first reported by the blog Telephony Unfiltered.

T-Mobile, the U.S.'s fourth-largest wireless network operator with 32.1
million customers, first began selling the G1 smartphone on Oct. 22,
2008. The phone's hardware, built by HTC, is also marketed as the HTC
Dream. T-Mobile USA is also working hard to provide 3G service
capability to more of its customers; it currently reaches 107 million,
far behind competitors such as AT&T or Verizon but far ahead of
where the company was half a year ago.

The revelation comes just as the Android operating system is beginning
to gain traction after a shaky start. Earlier this month, a report
surfaced that T-Mobile is planning to move more of its communication
devices over to Android.
The New York Times quoted T-Mobile spokesman Peter Dobrow, who declined
to discuss specific products but said the company has "several devices"
planned for Android. Confidential documents obtained by The Times
reveal T-Mobile is planning to release a home telephone running on
Android early next year, followed by a tablet computer.

In recent weeks, companies such as Samsung and Hewlett-Packard revealed
they are also looking at adopting Google's open-source operating system
for various mobile devices, though HP was quick to point out the
company might select another operating system.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt certainly feels strongly about Android's chances this year: During a conference call last week, Schmidt said
he thinks it looks like Android is going to have a "very, very strong
year." He said the company's open-source strategy was working and
hinted at future announcements.

"There are announcements happening between now and the end of the year
that are quite significant from operators and new hardware partners in
the Android space, which I won't preannounce except to say that they
really do fulfill much of the vision that we laid out more than a year
ago," he said during the call. "On the netbook side, there are a number
of people who have actually taken Android and ported it over to netbook
or netbook-similar devices."

Google is also bolstering Android on the application side. On Thursday, Google announced
a mobile-friendly version of its Product Search application,
emphasizing its utility for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Product
Search allows users to type whatever they're searching for into the
search bar and receive results pulled from a variety of shopping sites.

Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.